Blessed event coming to zoo

Orangutan at Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is pregnant.

Orangutan at Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is pregnant.

September 18, 2006

FORT WAYNE (AP) -- The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is expecting a special addition from a 22-year-old Sumatran orangutan that is pregnant. Sayang was expected to give birth for the first time in December. It would be the zoo's first orangutan birth since the species was added to the Indonesian Rain Forest exhibit in 1995, said Cheryl Piropato, the zoo's education director. Orangutans -- large, red-furred apes native to Indonesia and Malaysia's rain forests -- have been declining in numbers and are in danger of becoming extinct, the zoo said. The Orangutan Species Survival Plan, a cooperative program among zoos to maintain genetic diversity within the population of endangered animals, recommended the breeding of Sayang with a male orangutan named Tengku. Zoo visitors might not be able to tell that Sayang is pregnant. Orangutan babies, which normally gestate for nine months, weigh less than 4 pounds at birth, said animal curator Mark Weldon. Staff members have been traveling to other zoos around the country to learn how to prepare for the birth. "We're excited but also a little bit nervous," said Tanisha Dunbar, manager for the Indonesian Rain Forest Area. "This is Sayang's first baby and our first baby, too." Sayang is also getting some practice at motherhood. Zoo staff gave her a stuffed orangutan toy, which she holds to her chest as if she is nursing it, Weldon said. That's a good sign, he said, because it might indicate she remembers the maternal behaviors she saw when other orangutans gave birth at her former home in a Kansas zoo. If Sayang isn't able to take care of the baby, staff will look for foster mothers at other zoos, Weldon said. But zoo officials are hopeful Sayang will be a good mother and can raise her young to adulthood at the Fort Wayne facility.